Marabou - Steamboat Springs, CO
Stretching for miles along the Elk River on the western side of Steamboat Springs, Marabou is the latest in a long line of luxury ranch stewardship projects for which Robert Fitzgerald and other members of NAKA Designs, LLC have lead the design teams. Like Storm Mountain Ranch and others, the group was responsible for the architectural design of the entry compound, equestrian facilities, main lodge, spa, outfitter center, fitness center and the two different prototypes for the owner's cabins. Unlike some of the previous work, Fitzgerald also played a large role in the siting of the various small-structure compounds, the marketing efforts, the programming and sales charettes and the home design guidelines.
The strategy to create a series of ranch compounds worked well to blend the rather large program into the remote and various landforms of river, meadow and mountain that make up Marabou. The building groups are made of and based upon Colorado ranching vestiges - both literal and transformed. They are rugged, strong, timber-framed and handsome. They are proud, low to the ground, and simple. They are also at times surprisingly colorful and merge quietly with the hues of nature and the changing of season.
Marabou has won many stewardship and landscape design awards. It has also sold well in a difficult economy due in part to its spectacular location, but also because of its well-designed program and its unbelievably strong owner-amenity elements. It is quickly becoming notorious for its use of stewardship place-making strategies in a mountain wilderness context. The fishing is also amazing!
Photos
Stretching for miles along the Elk River on the western side of Steamboat Springs, Marabou is the latest in a long line of luxury ranch stewardship projects for which Robert Fitzgerald and other members of NAKA Designs, LLC have lead the design teams. Like Storm Mountain Ranch and others, the group was responsible for the architectural design of the entry compound, equestrian facilities, main lodge, spa, outfitter center, fitness center and the two different prototypes for the owner's cabins. Unlike some of the previous work, Fitzgerald also played a large role in the siting of the various small-structure compounds, the marketing efforts, the programming and sales charettes and the home design guidelines.
The strategy to create a series of ranch compounds worked well to blend the rather large program into the remote and various landforms of river, meadow and mountain that make up Marabou. The building groups are made of and based upon Colorado ranching vestiges - both literal and transformed. They are rugged, strong, timber-framed and handsome. They are proud, low to the ground, and simple. They are also at times surprisingly colorful and merge quietly with the hues of nature and the changing of season.
Marabou has won many stewardship and landscape design awards. It has also sold well in a difficult economy due in part to its spectacular location, but also because of its well-designed program and its unbelievably strong owner-amenity elements. It is quickly becoming notorious for its use of stewardship place-making strategies in a mountain wilderness context. The fishing is also amazing!
